This isn't the easiest thing to follow, but let's walk through it as best we can. First, there was this:
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is currently en route to south Florida.
— Joe Lull (@LullOnSports) July 6, 2014
That's Cleveland radio personality and "self-proclaimed ombudsman of Cleveland sports media" Joe Lull. And here's Gilbert:
". @LullOnSports:Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is currently en route to south Florida." I am? Sorry folks but enjoying weather in my backyard today
— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) July 6, 2014
End of story, right? NO MADAM. Cavs fans took a page from the college football fan playbook and found a damn plane. This, apparently, is Gilbert's (Rolls Royce!) plane. All the details check out:
And the plane is registered to SLAN LLC. Its address? 1074 Woodward Ave in Detroit. Same as Rock Ventures. http://t.co/O5trAdC9q0
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) July 6, 2014
And so does the flight history vis a vis the Cavaliers' free agent pursuits of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward:
Can’t argue w/ flight history. Indy on same day Hayward met with #Cavs & NJ around time Irving signed his extension. http://t.co/n5Qi5lKm5X
— Brendan Leister (@BrendanLeister) July 6, 2014
He's not wrong:
So, yeah, a plane that appears to belong to Dan Gilbert and has apparently been flying around to meet free agents -- whether or not it currently contains Dan Gilbert -- set off for Fort Lauderdale on Sunday afternoon. Here it is en route:
And here's the semi-retraction following Gilbert's denial:
Should've clarified earlier. Dan's plane was scheduled to take off for South Florida at 2pm. Could be sending it down for someone.
— Joe Lull (@LullOnSports) July 6, 2014
And, of course, here's the parody Twitter account:
You've gotta be kidding me pic.twitter.com/3v78vWQnXX
— Jack McCurry (@J_McCurry08) July 6, 2014
So you know it's real.